The Fight, The Challenge
by mangaluver34
Summary: Sequal to "My Innocence, My Savior." The exorcists are to face the Noah, but can Kohl handle Jasdevi? Rated T for bloody battles. Reviews welcome, please no flames!


AN: I write based on the manga, and so I only know the stuff from the first 12 volumes, so I'm not sure how things turn out with the Ark. For the story's sake, all the Noah, (including Skinn,) and all the exorcists survived. Plus, Tyki is still a Noah. Kohl joined the Order after the Ark incident. She never met any of the Noah. THIS WILL BE IMPORTANT LATER!!

Oh, and, surprisingly, I don't own D. Gray-Man. (Who would of guessed?)

The story:

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I was beat. My enemy and I were so close in skill, but he was just one notch better than me. I cowered in fear as he circled, taunting me. I waited in terror for him to finish me off…

Wait.

Maybe you'd like to know what happened before that?

Sorry.

I'll back up.

My best friend, and on many occasions, my literal lifesaver, and I were enjoying one of the rare episodes we both had a day off at the same time by relaxing and talking in his room.

"So, Allen," I started, "Does life as an exorcist ever get less boring?"

We laughed together. We were both having the most intense adventure ever to happen in out lives. It was anything but boring.

"Well, Kohl, I don't know what to tell you. I guess, as far as I can tell, it'll just stay in this mindless monotony forever," He replied teasingly. We laughed again.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. I sat up from the lazy position I had been lounging in on Allen's bed. Allen stood up from the floor. We were exorcists. We couldn't be caught acting like (gasp!) _normal kids._ That was one of the disadvantages to being an exorcist. We had high expectations, all the same, no matter our age.

I was twelve. Couldn't I have a little time to act like the tween that I was?

Only when I was alone with Allen.

"Come in," Allen said.

Lenalee came bursting in. She seemed frightened. No, not frightened. Shocked.

"Come to Komui's office! Immediately!" She cried. She seemed distraught. Something must have been seriously the matter. Allen sensed this too, and we hurried out after Lenalee, who turned and ran the other way. I guess had to go get someone else to join us.

We reached Komui's office in record time. We were met by Komui (obviously,) along with Kanda and Lavi.

"Excellent," said Komui, "As soon as Lenalee returns with Krory, we'll have everybody."

"Then will you tell us why the hell we're here?" Kanda snapped coldly.

"Of course," Komui replied calmly.

It didn't take long for the two exorcists to return. When they did, Komui said, "Great. We've got everybody. Now, I have a top-priority mission for all of you. You are our top exorcists, and we all agree that you will be the best fit to do this." He paused for a moment, took a deep breath, and suddenly, without warning, burst out in a rush, "We've found the location of the entire clan of Noah. They're heading this way, and soon we'll have a fight on our hands, and there'd be innocent people around. The best way to approach this is to ambush them while they're still in a remote area. You've got to do this, or there will be innocent blood on our hands." He flinched, as if the thought of this dangerous mission tore away at him. Lenalee saw this in him as well, and comforted him.

"It's okay, big brother. We're doing this. It's our duty," Lenalee said comfortingly.

It seemed to calm Komui, who continued, "Again, this is a top-priority mission. You've got to leave now."

We were then dismissed to a train that would take us to a boat that would take us to the place that we would ambush the Noah.

We rode for a few minutes in silence before I finally had to break it. "Why was Komui so nervous? Are the Noah really that bad to fight?" I'd only been an exorcist at the order for a few months. I had never seen the Noah in person, or even heard about them other than a few sentences of conversation between other exorcists. I was very unprepared, especially compared to the other people sitting around me in the car.

The reaction I got was not the one I was expecting. Krory seemed to shrink back into himself. I swear I saw Kanda's eye twitch. Allen sort of sneered. Lenalee stiffened. Lavi winced.

"Sorry. If you guys don't want to talk about it…" I felt bad that I'd brought it up.

"No. We should tell you. You should know." Surprisingly, the one who had spoken up was none other than Kanda. He and the others, who seemed to have recovered, then continued on to spend the full train and boat ride telling me everything they possibly knew about the Clan of Noah. As we approached the abandoned campsite that the Noah had crashed in, I felt prepared. I was ready.

A few hundred yards from the location we were planning to fight in, Lavi stopped us. "We should come in more prepared. There's six of them and six of us. Who are we each going to face? The whole idea of an ambush is that we have a plan and they don't. So we need to actually get a plan."

"Right," Allen said, "We do need to split up tasks." He paused, biting his lip. "I'm taking on Tyki. We've got some personal issues to take care of."

"I've got Skinn. I'm not going to let him get away this time," Kanda said. As I'd heard, he'd faced Skinn a long time ago, and he left Skinn alive, thinking he was dead. He could have killed him, but he hadn't. Kanda never forgave himself for messing up like that.

"I've got Road," Said Lavi.

"I'll take on Lulu," Spoke up Lenalee.

"I''ve got Cyril," Krory said, "I'm not fighting Jasdevi again."

"I guess that leaves me with Jasdevi, does it not?" I asked.

"I guess so. Good luck," Allen said with an encouraging smile.

"You'll need it," Krory said darkly.

We spoke for a while longer, forming a plan. Finally, we had a good idea. We would attack the family, not aiming to kill yet, just to surprise. Road would hopefully push us into a new dimension, where we'd be alone with our opponents. We would then go into a full-on death match, leaving for home if we survived. Hopefully, in a few hours, we'd find out for sure who had won.

And who had died.

After we were all clear on the plan, we said our goodbyes, not knowing how each match would turn out. It was obviously an emotional time, so we had to wait a couple extra minutes to dry our faces of tears.

Finally, we were ready.

We snuck up on the open campsite, prowling, nearly stalking, like a hunter and its prey. We lined ourselves up with our targets, then, screaming, ran in, Innocence at the ready.

I swung my steel-filled balloon by the string towards David, hoping it would catch Jasdero on the rebound. (Yes, they were separated. That made things all the more difficult.) I hit my mark, watching their gray faces turn from expressions of shock to pain. All of my friends (and Kanda) hit their targets as well. Road, as expected, created a door to a parallel universe as soon as she'd recovered from the surprise. The Noah escaped through it, us following closely.

I didn't know what to expect as I entered the new world, but what I saw was very startling.

The whole world was a big room, simply black and white checkered tile covering everything. It had dim lighting, (the source of which I never found) but it was not completely dark. I sprinted after my goal, Jasdero and David, who were the only ones other than me. Everyone else must have gone to other dimensions.

I cornered the two Noah. David spoke up, still strong, while flipping me off.

"I've never seen you before, but you should know, you are messing with the wrong people. You still have time to leave, and we won't chase you. You should know, that door will disappear in two minutes, and it won't reappear until one of us is dead. Road likes to set up battlefields that way." He paused for several seconds. "You going or not?"

"Of course not!" I said, rolling my eyes. "You think I'm gonna back down just like that? I'm not just some wimpy little girl, you know."

"Really? You sure look like one," David replied, smirking. He knew that would strike a nerve. He was right. I swung my balloon his way again, but this time, he dodged it. "You've got nothing on us. True, you can fill that with whatever you want, but let me ask you, can you open it?"

I hissed at the mention of my Innocence's biggest weakness. David laughed tauntingly. "I'll take that as a no. We, however…" He let his voice trail off, letting the demonstration do the talking. Very suddenly, he and Jasdero were holding high-caliber machine guns. I stepped back a few feet. Those guns didn't seem too friendly.

"Aww…scared, are you?" David was enjoying his little game, obviously knowing about his advantage.

"Scared! Hee!" Jasdero's voice was surprisingly loud and clear, especially considering the stitches holding his mouth closed. According to my lesson on the Noah I had taken earlier, he had been talking with David one conversation too long, and the rest was history. It was suddenly quite hard to hold back laughter.

"She giggled! Hee!" Cried Jasdero.

"Well, well. Did we think up a good plan?" Asked David, again, taunting me. I was getting sick of it.

"Hey," I started with a false swagger, "Instead of all this big talk, how about we actually fight? Or are you the ones who are scared?" I finished it innocently.

David's eye twitched. He screamed and fired the gun. Bullet after deadly bullet went flying at me. I dodged each and every one. He swore and muttered "Fast" and finished off with a name a twelve year-old shouldn't hear. I smiled sweetly.

Jasdero then took his turn at firing at me. His tactic was different than his comrade's. He was firing wildly, madly shooting at everything. In consequence, he ended up shooting mostly at the air a thousand feet from where I stood. The few bullets that did come my way were kind of klutzy and easy to avoid. Then, it was his turn to say a few choice cuss words.

"These won't work," David said angrily, tossing the guns to the side. "Let's try…" I was sure he meant to make something with Jasdero, but they were thinking on totally different minds. I cracked up just to tease them.

"Fine!" David shrieked, humiliated, "You wanna play that way? Here!" Suddenly, he and Jasdreo both held pistols in their hands. I knew what was happening. They reached towards each other's heads and fired. They sizzled for a few seconds, then came back as one. Jasdevi. "Now let's see who's the better at conjuring material!" He hissed.

I again called upon my acting skills to look brave. "Let's."

We dove for each other. Jasdevi called up a spear and threw it. I dodged it.

"If I can avoid bullets, you want something faster and more accurate!" I called.

"Naïve child…" Jasdevi said with relish.

I didn't know what he meant, up until the point where I felt the terrible pain in my back. I knew it was a specially designed spear to turn around. A boomerang.

The pain was spreading all over my body. I dropped to my knees. Jasdevi laughed. I choked out, "Poison?" He nodded, still grinning.

He knelt by my side and whispered in my ear, "I thought you'd be harder to kill, Kohl." How he knew my name, I had no idea. I didn't care. "I thought you'd be more fun than this…" I fell to the ground, gasping. He laughed. "I guess I'll just have to settle for watching your death as entertainment." My breathing got more uneven. "Really, I thought you'd be less easy…"

"And I thought you'd be less gullible." I said, nailing him in the stomach with my balloon. He went flying. I stood up, and pulled the spearhead from my back. My Innocence had saved me from the poison. I thought Jasdevi knew that would happen.

"Oww…" He moaned. I walked over; ignoring the trail of blood I was leaving (my balloon couldn't protect me from everything) and wailed on him some more. He winced, and I smiled. Not being able to help it, I cried excitedly, "I thought you'd be easier than this…"

He finally began ignoring the pain and started fighting back. It became a more even match, us both with almost equal injuries. As I fought and tried to avoid his attacks, I thought of my friends. How were they doing? I worried especially for Allen, facing Tyki…

My lapse of concentration cost me an opportunity for a blow against Jasdevi, and gave him the chance to hit me sevral times with the ninja star he'd imagined.

I pulled the blade from my chest, its latest location, and staggered towards him. He was not bloody at all. I couldn't fill my balloon with particular objects, just materials. I had been subjected to trying to beat him to death with various metals. I couldn't cut, only bruise.

I, however, had become a bloody mess. I had been both beaten and stabbed all over my body. I was covered in both bruises and blood. Yet, we continued to fight until I was over twice my usual breaking point, and obviously slow and weakened. He wasn't. He was just as strong as ever. I was losing. Finally, I was at my end. I collapsed. He laughed.

I was beat. My enemy and I were so close in skill, but he was just one notch better than me. I cowered in fear as he circled, taunting me. I waited in terror for him to finish me off…

I closed my eyes, and suddenly had a flashback to the night I'd met Allen. I had shrunk against terrible odds then, too.

Also, that day, another exorcist had jumped in and saved me.

Hold on.

Someone had _what?_

I opened my eyes and recognized, standing in front of me…

Lavi.

"Nice job weakening him, Kohl." He called over his shoulder, not missing a beat in his fight with Jasdevi.

"I…I didn't weaken him…" I murmured, still dazed from my injuries.

"Yeah you did!" He cried, "You just don't recognize it from your much worse trauma!" He fought for a few minutes, requiring all of his concentration. I began having trouble keeping consciousness. Lavi noticed this. "You've got to get out of here! I forced Road to create that door for you! It leads back to our world! Hurry, you're bleeding to death! I'll take care of him!" I groggily looked over my shoulder. Yep, there was a door there, all right. I began crawling toward it, slowly, though. Very slowly…

I guess it was the effort it took to crawl the seven feet that I did. I blacked out before reaching the door.

The last things I thought were about my friends. _I hope Lavi can beat Jasdevi. I hope Allen did all right with Tyki. I hope Kanda actually killed Skinn this time. I hope, I hope…_

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"Hey, I think she's waking up!"

The voice seemed to speed up my recovery. "A…Allen?"

"Yeah. I'm right here."

I sighed. I couldn't do anything more than that. Calling out my friend's name had used up all my strength.

He understood. "It's okay. Rest. We'll sit you up in a few minutes, if you're up to it."

I did as I was told, and soon, (with a little help and a lot of pain,) I was able to sit up and lean myself against a tree. I was back in my world.

I opened my eyes. Once they had adjusted to the light of the outdoor site we were in, I looked around and counted heads. One, two, three, four, five, and I made six. Yes. None of my friends had died.

"Lavi?" I called.

"Mmm?"

"Did…Did you kill…" I must have been hurt worse than I thought. I couldn't even ask him if he'd killed Jasdevi.

"Jasdevi? Oh, no. None of us, besides Kanda, were able to kill our targets. I beat up Road pretty bad and made her open up doors for all of us to escape. That's when I came to get you."

I focused more and realized that all of my comrades were covered in bandages and injuries.

"You guys…are hurt…too…you've gotta…stop…worrying…about…me…"

Allen laughed. "Thanks, Kohl, but we're not hurt as bad as we look. You, however, don't look as hurt as you are."

With a lot of effort, I looked down at myself. I was completely torn apart, with bandages covering almost every inch of me.

I closed my eyes and leaned back. In my fragile state, I didn't want to get too overexcited. All I did was say "Thanks, Lavi. And good job Kanda," And went to sleep.

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AN: Sorry to burst people's bubbles, but A) I like all the Noah (besides Skinn) So I didn't have the heart to kill them, and B) I'm sick and tired of the good guys winning all the time, but I didn't want to kill Kohl or anyone else in that group, so I made it somewhat of a draw.

The fact that I repeated the first paragraph later in the story was not a mistake. I thought it would be cool.

I'm going to make this a trilogy and make the next story a romance. Between who, I'm not telling. It's classified.

I want to thank H and K for giving me the inspiration to write this. (Remember when you said, "Kohl's power is sorta like Jasdevi's"? Well, that made me want to see them fight, so I wrote this.)

Okay. That's it. Thanks for reading this, and please review. See you in the next story, I guess.


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